Causes of death contributing to changes in life expectancy: United States, 1984-89

During 1984-89, life expectancy increased for the total population (0.6 year), white males (0.9 year), and white females (0.5 year), while it decreased for black males (-0.8year) and black females (-0.2 year). These changes in life expectancy are the result of changes in mortality for specific age-ram-sex groups and identifiable causes of death. Using a technique developed by Eduardo E. Arriaga (1,2), this report identifies major causes of death contributing to the change in life expectancy between 1984 and 1989. Refer to Technical notes for a brief description of this methodology. The tectique partitions changes in life expectancy into positive contributions (which are those causes of death and age groups that contribute to an increase in life expectancy) and negative contributions (which are those that contribute to a decrease). The report includes separate analyses by age and causes of death. For the total population, positive contributions occurred for the age groups under 15 years and age groups 45 years and over while negative contributions occurred for the age groups 15-44 years. The report also examines the combined contributions of age and causes of death for the total population and the four race-sex groups. For the total population, positive contributions to the increase in life expectancy were due to changes in mortality for Diseases of heart under 1 and 35 years and over; Cerebrovascular diseases, 40 years and over; and Malignant neoplasms, including neoplasms of lymphatic and hematopoietic tissues, 30-59 years. Negative contributions were largely due to HIV infection, 20-59 years; Malignant neoplasma, including neoplasm of lymphatic and hematopoietic tissues, 65 years and oveq and Pneumonia and influenza, 75 years and over.